Vermin Control
by esama
Summary: While performing some usual pest control in London, Alucard encounters an interesting little worm. Hellsing Harry Potter crossover with OOCness. Slightly dark.
1. Little worm

**Vermin control**

**Little worm  
**

Alucard sighed while glancing around in the dingy back alley that had been moistened by the misty rain. It had been a beautiful night before the clouds had came and the rain had started. The moon had been a bare crescent of its glorious full self and the lights of London had faded out the stars, but it still had been beautiful in a certain way. Now the sky was covered by dull dark grey and the air was damp.

_It could have at least been a storm,_ he thought to himself, looking up from underneath the brim of his hat. The water didn't bother him at all even though the night would've been cold and uncomfortable for a mere mortal. For him it was just annoyance - especially so since it made the rubbish that stuck to the corners of the darkest alleys reek so horridly.

Storm, on other hand… that would've been enjoyable. A much as he enjoyed starlit nights and strolls in the bloodied moonlight, little bit of thunder now and then was good for his withered heart.

_This night fits the nightly maggot well,'_ the old undead mused, looking around. He had to deal with vermin all the time, but the one for this night was like a cricket. It kept hopping around and escaping -- and had somehow managed to avoid two of Alucard's bullets. The cricket was not powerful enough to warrant any excessive display of power but it was still highly annoying.

Lowering his eyes back to the alley Alucard continued to walk on, tracking the vermin's scent and power. It was still close somewhere, trying to lure him in. Apparently the maggot thought that it would have higher chances of beating the elder vampire if it would manage to get Alucard to his territory. Such foolishness, but one couldn't expect any high intelligence from insects.

"Where do you think you are taking me…" the red clad undead grinned and glanced to his left, "little bug…?"

He could distantly hear the sound of scurrying as the maggot hurried off. With a snort, Alucard accepted faux chase and followed. _How unbecoming,_ he thought with mock horror while following the shadow of the other vampire through the alleys. The vermin was dashing over the rooftops, and now it was painfully obvious that it was leading him somewhere.

It was a rundown warehouse - the vermin had even been gracious enough to open the door for him. _Little bit more obvious and I'd think I have been tricked,_ Alucard mused with a chuckle while walking inside. _I see a severe lack of imagination here,_ he thought, looking around himself critically. The warehouse was mostly abandoned but there were still some old crates there to make it suitably maze like. _Like a proper nest of bugs. I wonder if there's more than one vermin here. Probably… the scent of rust here covers the scent of blood surprisingly well._

With a chuckle he walked forward and past the first crates. "Well, Follow the Leader was fun. Shall we play Hide and Seek next?" he asked out loud, not really expecting an answer. Allowing his eyes slide over the shadows of the rather messy warehouse, he listened to the soft disjointed growling and stumbling coming from the shadows of the warehouse. "Or how about Tag?" he chuckled again, taking out his gun just as the first ghouls came out of the shadows. "I can be It."

The first shot was always something to be cherished for Alucard. The Casull's kick, which would've broken any human's writ easily, felt comforting against the vampire's palm. The scent of the gunpowder was something Alucard had came to be surprisingly fond of, but usually he could smell perfectly only after the first shot. Because immediately afterwards the scent would be covered by the stench of decaying bodies as they turned to dust.

_Why do vermin keep these things as their pets, I will never understand,_ Alucard thought while watching the first precious silver bullet take out three ghouls at once. _Taking them out is as easy as reaping hay. Easier even._ Walking forward, Alucard fired the gun again and again, taking out as many of the undead bodies as he could with as little shots as possible. He didn't want his Master to berate him for overuse of bullets again - silver bullets weren't the cheapest rounds in the world after all.

"This game is boring," Alucard mused after last of the ghouls, who had apparently been an elderly woman, disintegrated to the ground. Tilting his head back almost leisurely, he looked up to the ceiling. There, hanging from rusted metal chain, the head vermin was looking down to him. The maggot's eyes widened with surprise as Alucard aimed the Casull upwards. "You wanna be It?"

"Die," the maggot answered and the darkness was lit by the rabid fire flashing of machine gun's fire.

Alucard grinned as the bullets rained down on him, heavier and sharper than any storm. Laughing softly under his breath the vampire enjoyed the feeling of his flesh tearing. _As close to death as I get,_ he chuckled silently and lowered his eyes to his arm just as it fell to the floor. Soon his body was too broken and too torn to stay standing and he fell to the floor in gory mass.

The rain of bullets ended and with a mental cackle Alucard allowed the maggot to enjoy his momentary victory. These vermin were so easy to fool these days. The maggot jumped down from the chain he had been hanging on and stepped beside him.

"Not so high and mighty now, Mr Red," the vermin said, kicking Alucard's side.

"You'll stain your shoes," Alucard chuckled softly, his amusement stretching into full laugher as the cricket jumped up with a yelp and right back to the chain he had been hanging on. Allowing his being pull itself together, Alucard looked up and to the cricket. "What were you saying about high and mighty, cricket?" he asked, grinning toothily while picking up his gun from the floor with arm that was till broken from at least two spots. "I think you have been hopping for long enough."

"What the hell?!" the maggot asked as the rain of bullets started again. Alucard laughed, as the bullets tore holes through him - holes which were repaired immediately after. "Die, you freak!" the vampire yelled even as he ran out of bullets."

"Freak, huh? What would that make you?" Alucard laughed, aiming his gun again. "Perfectly normal and acceptable?"

Just as he was about to fire, he heard a rasping sound from behind him like metal screeching against metal. Turning his attention towards it, expecting another useless piece of hay, the red clad vampire blinked with slight surprise. The rasping sound came from back of rusted crate where there was a steel cage - and a boy in it. The boy was naked and looking it at him, bright red eyes gleaming in the shadows of the crate.

"Hm? You have a baby worm here?" Alucard asked with curiosity and without even looking he squeezed the trigger. He didn't even need to look up to know that the shot had hit exactly where he wanted it to hit. Two pieces fell next to him, first a separated foot that broke to dust and then rest of the maggot. "You turned a child?" Alucard asked, turning his attention to the weaker vampire. The scent of gunpowder was barely distinguishable over the blood and rust as he fired the gun and took the maggot's other leg. "How improper of you."

"I didn't turn him!" the short haired vampire cried at him, trying to back away and doing rather poor job at it. Losing both legs seemed to put the fight out of him, but Alucard hadn't exactly been expecting a proper fight from this pitiful creature anyway. "I fed on him and he turned!"

Alucard snorted, turning his eyes back to the child who was now leaning forward and looking at them from inside his cage. The child looked no older than five or six years - and by the looks of it, his maker had starved him. "On his own? What a skilful child," he said mockingly with a grin. "Why not just kill him if you did not mean to make him?" he then asked sharply. _Dooming a child into undead life unwittingly - the least he could've done was to end the child's misery._

"I couldn't," the vampire snarled, throwing a look of utter hate towards the kid. There was something else to it, some measure of reproachful fear. "I just couldn't," With a frown the vampire turned to look up at Alucard. "If you're gonna kill me, you might as well do it."

"Vermin with a small measure of intelligence, how refreshing," Alucard smirked. Usually maggots were at this point trying to crawl away in terror, but this cricket seemed to know the end was coming. Maybe it had even lead Alucard to the warehouse so that he could go out properly, ghouls and baby worms and all. Vampire, even a weak one, who accepted their end like this almost merited a hint of respect. Almost. "You have been one bothersome maggot."

"If I'm a maggot, does that make you some bloody bird?" the vampire sneered, looking at Alucard's gun. Though there was fear in his eyes, he was no longer trying to get away.

A shot lit up the shadows around them and the bang echoed in the night. "I prefer to think myself as a blood hound, really," Alucard answered, and turned his attention away from the pile of dust the vermin had become. Instead he looked at the boy. The boy was looking at him steadily and without hint of fear even after watching his maker turn to dust.

Alucard chuckled. "Now, what about you?" he asked, walking forward and to the crate. Crouching beside the cage he nudged one of the metal bars with the side of the gun. "What shall I do with you, accidentally turned baby worm?"

"I have a name," the boy answered, too big teeth gleaming from behind chapped lips. "It's Harry."

"Baby worm suits you better," Alucard smirked, somewhat amused by the boy's lack of emotion. The master worm must've held the boy captive for a while for the kid to become like this. "How old are you, baby worm?"

"Seven," the child answered before shifting closer. Alucard's eyes widened marginally as the boy pressed his forehead against the barrel of the silver shaded pistol. "Can _you_ kill me?" the boy asked almost curiously and then glanced at the pile of dust outside the crate. "He tried many times. Never could do it."

Alucard frowned, now more than lightly intrigued. There was something odd about this child, vampire or not. Tilting his head curiously to the side, the elder vampire pressed the barrel more strongly against the pale forehead and tightened his hold on the trigger. He didn't fire, though, mostly because the boy didn't seem frightened in the least. Vampires who truly did not care whether they lived or died and who did not bother with any sort of resistance were rare indeed.

"You are quite peculiar baby worm, aren't you?" Alucard mused and then noticed something interesting on the boy's forehead. Using the barrel of the Casull, he brushed the boy messy black hair aside and examined the old cut in the boy's forehead with his eyes. "This came before you were turned. How did you get it, baby worm?"

"It was always there," Harry answered glancing at the gun as Alucard used it to push the dirty hair behind the boy's ear. Then the boy turned his coldly gleaming eyes to the elder vampire. "You can't kill me either," he said with finality.

Alucard chuckled, amused by the confidence the boy was suddenly displaying. "Don't flatter yourself, baby worm," he said, pushing the rest of the hair behind the boy's other ear. Behind the messy mass, the boy was pale, thin and his eyes were way too big for his small face. If he he'd been allowed to live, he would've grown up to be quite handsome. "I merely choose not to kill you yet."

"You will choose not to kill me later on too. You'll see," the boy answered without hesitation.

Laughing softly, the elder vampire directed the gun under the boy's chin and forced him to lean his head back. "Self flattery is inappropriate in polite company, little worm," he said while turning the boy's face to the side and then to the other side in search for the puncture wounds. The master maggot must've bitten the boy carelessly, to be able to accidentally turn him. Yet there were no scars. "Where did the dust pile bit you, little worm?"

"Many places," the boy answered, closing his eyes. "He kept me around for food supply for months before trying to kill me for the first time."

"Ah, I see…" Alucard frowned. Perhaps the master maggot had been a more refined than he had realised. Glancing backwards to the remains of the ghouls, he had to wonder how old they were. It could be that the maggot had kept his preys alive for months, leeching them off their blood little by little before killing them. _Not a rabid one, I guess…_ he mused. _Though in __London__ such behaviour would have not been wise in the first place._

"What happened to the scars?" Alucard then asked while turning his eyes to the child, who was still holding his head tilted to the side thanks to the gun which was still pointing under his chin. "How old were you when he killed you, little worm?"

"The scars healed. I was five," the boy answered calmly.

"He turned you two years ago and have kept you in this box ever since?" Alucard asked somewhat amusedly, withdrawing the gun just so that he could tap the bars with it. The metallic sound echoed in the crate. "How did you survive without starving to a withered husk?"

"He kept his preys in this crate sometimes. They couldn't let me die so they fed me," the boy answered, opening his eyes again. "One even tried to free me."

"Oh?" Alucard raised his eyebrows and examined the cage the boy was in more closely. It had a door, but it had actually been welded shut. "He really didn't want you to escape, hm, little worm?"

"He thought I'd draw attention to him," Harry said simply.

"I see. Hm. You do come from some unlikely circumstances, don't you?" Alucard chuckled and for a moment he wondered where the boy came from and how he had ended up as food for the vermin. Had the vermin captured the boy's entire family and fed off them too, or had it been jut the little worm? In the end, he wasn't interested enough to ask. It didn't even really matter.

"Well, little worm, I think I must be going now," the elder vampire said, directing the gun at the boy again. "I wouldn't want to worry my Master after all. You were interesting company, but…" he made a haphazard motion with his gun. "All good things come to pass. Good bye, little worm"

The boy blinked at him slowly and waited. Then he raised his eyebrows. "You can't do it, can you?" Harry asked softly.

Alucard frowned. He was trying to. The trigger was just underneath his finger and he had pulled it a thousand times. It was easy, sometimes too easy, but for some reason… it was impossible for him to squeeze his finger this time. It just wouldn't move like he wanted it to.

"You're just like him. He intended to do it too. He had a gun, he tried to throw me into sunlight, he threw some gasoline at me and lit a match…" the boy spoke softly. "But he couldn't do it. And neither can you."

Pulling the gun back, the elder vampire measured the boy with his eyes. "It's impossible for you to manipulate me like this, you're nothing but a maggot yourself," he said softly but there was curiosity in his voice. He could've broken the compulsion not to shoot had he really wanted, but the fact that it actually worked at all was surprising. This was some form of magic he hadn't countered before. Silent and stern, simple but powerful -- and it didn't feel dark. How was the boy doing it? "No child could ever wield this sort of power over me."

"I'm not," the boy answered calmly with a somewhat lethargic blink. "It's always been like this. Even before. My aunt couldn't force me to drink the cleaning detergent, my cousin couldn't push me down the stairs, my uncle couldn't strangle me," he shrugged his small, bony shoulders. "The best they could do was to leave me to the streets. Then he picked me up," the boy glanced at the dust pile. "And he couldn't kill me either."

"He did once," Alucard denied, wondering how that had happened if the boy had this sort of protection with him.

"Not really," the boy answered.

_Well, no use arguing against that_. With a snort Alucard pulled the gun away and hid it back to its holster. "You're even more interesting than I first thought, little worm," he murmured. The boy was harmless but not powerless and that certainly made him intriguing. Especially since Alucard wasn't perfectly sure what the boy's power was. Perhaps an inborn talent with telepathy which had manifested as coercion projected at his enemies. It was incredible for it to be strong enough to affect Alucard of all vampires, even if only for a while.

"I imagine you will be even more interesting in few years," the elder vampire mused and then grasped a tight hold on the metallic bars of the cage. With very little difficulty he started to twist it until it snapped loose from the cage. Throwing it aside, he grabbed another one and ripped it off as well. Then he stood up. "Cause some trouble to the humans, little worm, and I'll be sent to kill you. And I can guarantee that the next time your little compulsion won't work on me."

The boy looked at him for a moment before crawling out of the cage and standing up slowly. He was even thinner than he had appeared to be whilst sitting down. "It works now. You're not letting me go because you want to," he said calmly. "It's because if you would leave me, I'd starve to death."

"Maybe," Alucard allowed with a smirk and tuned around to leave. He had no true reason to kill the child in the first place - after being kept in captivity like an animal, the boy was as innocent as vampire could be. The master maggot was already dead and thus Alucard's mission was a success. "Let's meet again in a few years, little worm. Make sure to be just as interesting then as you are now."

The boy didn't answer until Alucard was already out of the crate. "Who are you?" Harry asked softly, his voice for the first time sounding actually young.

"My Master calls me Alucard," the elder vampire answered with a laugh. "Make sure to leave this place behind you, little worm, before my Master's people move in to clean it up. If they will see you, they will try to kill you."

"Try," the boy repeated calmly, looking after him with thoughtful gleaming eyes. Then he turned to leave as well.

Laughing somewhat dementedly in agreement, Alucard faded into the shadows of the half rotten warehouse. If would be interesting, if the boy would live for few more years. If he already had such strength about him when he was young then… then maybe in time he would be a worthy opponent. Maybe.

---

D: I don't know where this came from, I'm sorry! The need to write some Hellsing x Harry Potter stuff has been nagging at me for months now, and this is how to came out. Pfft.


	2. Poison butterfly

**Vermin control  
**

******Poison butterf**ly

The nights of London had seen all manner of monsters and Alucard had had the questionable pleasure of meeting some of them. Most of these monsters were nothing but low level vermin with some rare tougher insect thrown into the mix and he had almost gotten adjusted to it; to the complete lack of proper challenge and to the continuation of his boredom which he often feared would last forever.

Of course it didn't mean that he didn't find some small measure of glee squashing the insects under his heel. In that he knew he was rather like a kid standing beside nest of ants. They were so small, so utterly insignificant, but there was still some twisted satisfaction and completion in hearing how they were crushed. It didn't make life any more exciting than it usually was, but it managed to amuse him momentarily.

Perhaps that was why he was, once more, out in the streets of London applying some blessed silver pesticide. The vermin of the night was, according to Walter's information, a foreigner either from America or Mexico, who had came into London a few nights ago. This exotic bug had exotic tastes, if one could really call it that. It had seemed to hit the nerves of several Hellsing members that this vampire, what ever her name was, preferred children - and in as many ways as possible.

_Monsters even among us monsters,_ Alucard mused while peering up to the night sky. It was a cool winter night and the sky was just perfect. The pollution of the city lights didn't seem as bad this night too, perhaps there was a black out somewhere. The stars were visible and so was the half moon, glorious in its coldness.

Intergra had specially assigned Alucard for the night's pest control. Most of the other Hellsing members hadn't taken the pictures of the mutilated children too well, especially since most of them had turned into ghouls. Miss Hellsing herself hadn't been exactly calm either, but in midst of it she had realised that perhaps it wasn't best to let emotional humans handle a job obviously meant only for someone… cold blooded. Emotional humans made emotional mistakes after all.

_And so the blood hound is sent out to do the dirty work, I feel so privileged,_ Alucard chuckled while closing his eyes and breathing in the cold air. He didn't mind. The last weeks had been mighty boring, having a bit of fun with a maggot, even if one of such sort, could entertain him for a while. The vampire grinned and lowered his eyes to the house in front of him. He would pick the little vermin apart like kid plugged off the wings from a bee to make it unable to fly.

With a chuckle, Alucard stepped forward. _One of these parasites, hm?_ He mused to himself, glancing towards the window before turning his eyes to the door. It was a human's house. According to Walter, who had uncanny ability of being right, the owners of the house were away on holiday. Some vampires, especially those who wandered around like this one did, had the habit of living in the houses of humans like parasites.

Some of the most gracious ones, who liked not to draw attention to themselves, left the house in the state it had been when they came to live in it. Alucard doubted that this parasite was one of them. He could already smell the blood and he had yet to even kick the door down.

_And not just human blood,_ the red clad undead thought while stepping next to the door. The house was almost silent but he could hear creaking of metal from inside. _The little creepy crawly made some worms for her amusement, huh?__ Like a queen bee… _His red eyes narrowed as he reached for the doorknob. It was locked but couldn't handle his strength for even half a second. _There are truly some nauseating bloodsuckers amongst the parasites of this earth._

Dropping the broken doorknob to the steps, Alucard walked inside. He was immediately surrounded but stench of blood. _Few days here and already she has spilled this much blood? The queen bee has been busy,_ he thought. The house was dark but darkness had never been an obstacle for him - if anything it was a beloved ally.

Following the sound of creaking and the reek of blood, Alucard made his way through the dark house. Walking pass the corridor he came to the living room and grimaced. The room was a mess and so were the inhabitants in it. Four much too small ghouls feasting on what had once been a child.

"How… truly repulsive," the red clad vampire murmured with a chuckle glancing towards a closed door where the most of the stench of blood - and the creaking sound - was coming from. With a disgusted snort, Alucard reached inside his jacket. It was somehow revolting that in the room of filth, he and his silver shaded gun were so clean, he mused while aiming the Casull at the child ghouls.

The first shot wasn't as pleasing as it usually was. "My apologies for interrupting your leisure time, queen bee of filth," he muttered as the first bullet tore the twisted life out of two of the ghouls. The second shot took out the two others before they could even look up. "But it's time to clean up your nest."

_This is not fun at all,_ Alucard thought while turning his attention to the door leading to what he assumed was bedroom, and stepping forward. The room was silent now. _Not yet anyway._

The horror inside wasn't exactly the horror he had been expecting though. He had seen picture of the female vampire - one of those curvaceous women turned solely for their looks - and he had a clear picture of she preferred preys - young fragile boys all under the age of nine. And the creaking sound had been rather indicating.

"What is this now?" Alucard asked almost curiously, taking in the double bed red with blood and the pieces of what had apparently been parts of the queen bee's little larva. On the bed, amongst the broken body parts, the queen bee herself lay almost silently with her wide eyes looked at Alucard. There was fear in them - and plea of help. And the reason for that was sitting casually on the woman's stomach, looking at Alucard almost lethargically

"Little worm," the elder vampire spoke with small amount of surprise, taking in the seemingly five year old boy straddling the woman's middle. There was blood on the boy's lips and, just like the last time Alucard had seen the boy, the child vampire was completely naked - though this time the reason was apparently different. "Fancy seeing you here."

Licking his lips clean, the boy leaned back slightly, one small hand reaching back so that he could lean onto the woman's hip and other coming to brush his now rather lengthy hair from his eyes. "Alucard," he said as if tasting the word in his mouth.

Alucard blinked before starting to laugh. The two others certainly made interesting sight. Taking in the small puncture wounds running rampant all over the woman's neck, the terror in her eyes and her complete lack of movement, the elder vampire started to smile. The little worm certainly fit the criteria of the woman's usual amusement. "My, my," he murmured walking forward. "Ended up being hunted by your prey, hm, queen bee?" he asked softly.

The woman's breathing hitched and the boy sitting on top of her turned his eyes back to her. Alucard allowed his smile to widen. It seemed that Harry was just as expressionless as during the last time they had met - and thankfully no less interesting. "It seems you have developed an interesting taste since the last time we met, little worm. How long has it been? Three years?"

The boy didn't answer immediately, instead made a soft sound, almost like a snort. "She hunted on my territory," he answered, turning his eyes back to Alucard. "Feasted on two of my favourites."

Alucard raised his eyebrows. "You have a territory now? I see," he said rather neutrally. _Two of his favourites? Little worm prefers children himself, hm? How interesting. Especially since they had to be alive to interest this queen bee,_ he mused while pushing Casull back to it's holster. It didn't seem he needed it anymore.

"The kids in the streets are mine," Harry said rather coldly. "They give me their blood and in return I make sure they get by, that they aren't bothered. I even let my favourite ones stay with me rather than living with other humans in the shelters I found for them… And then this woman… butted in." Now there was hint of steel in the boy's voice.

"Seems like you have territory issues as well," Alucard commented amusedly, smirking at the shiver that ran through the undead woman's otherwise paralysed form. "Interesting method retribution you use. How did you render her immobile?"

"With a little drug," the boy answered, seemingly calming down a little. "It will wear off in six hours." he licked his lips thoughtfully, making the elder male wonder about the method he had used to administer the drug. "I, of course, took the counter drug beforehand."

Alucard chuckled. _How very fitting. How very fitting indeed, little worm,_ he thought with glee, almost wishing that his Master could see this. Though on second thought, she would probably be repulsed. "Drinking another vampire's blood… that is rather unusual, don't you agree?" he then asked with little bit of curiosity.

"I have no intention of letting her escape," he boy answered rather cryptically and glanced at him. "Also, her memories will help me prevent this sort of situation from happening again."

Alucard's eyebrows rose with a surprise. _Her memories?_ "I see," he whispered as the surprise faded into sudden burst of glee. "I see. Yes… yes, now I'm glad my Master sent me to this pathetic mission. You, little worm, are _interesting_." With a low chuckle, he sat down to the bloodied bed. Looking over the woman again, he snorted. "You're certainly taking your sweet time with her."

"I have a small stomach," the boy answered, leaning forward and resting his small hands between the woman's rather generous breasts. "I need time to ingest." Closing his eyes he reached for the woman's already rather wounded throat. She whined softly and her legs started to shake, making the bed creak, but she couldn't do anything to stop the boy.

"I wonder how it feels, being preyed upon by a prey himself…" Alucard chuckled softly at the sight of the child feed. _What a neat little worm,_ he wondered with amusement. Harry didn't seem to intend to let a single drop escape, holding his lips tightly over the wounds. Alucard himself had never been that neat, nor would he ever be. He enjoyed the sight and taste and _feel_ of running blood. _Well, I guess we all have our likes and dislikes,_ he chuckled, leaning back.

"Bothersome woman," the boy murmured after moment of careful feeding. Straightening his slight upper body again, he licked his lips. "The blood tastes horrible as well."

"Finish your meal properly, young man, or you won't get a treat," Alucard mocked, tilting his head to the side. "Little worm," he added and frowned. _Huh. I don't think little worm suits him anymore,_ he thought, taking in the boy's appearance. He was still small and would always be small, but he was different now. The boy was definitely not as starved as he had been during their last meeting, and his hair was cleaner and longer. Freedom seemed to agree with him.

"I've heard about you," the boy suddenly said, licking a droplet of red from the corner of his mouth. "The vampires of London know you - and the Hellsing organisation." The gleaming eyes turned lazily to Alucard. "When you spoke of your Master, I did not expect it to be a human."

"We all have our little quirks," Alucard grinned toothily before tilting his head to the side and mocking, "Do we have the vermin of this fair city running scared? My Master will be pleased to hear that."

The boy snorted. "They know that as long as they don't make noise about themselves, no one will bother to tell them to be quiet," he glanced at the female vampire. "It's the outsiders like these - and the newcomers - that you usually dispose. To tell you the truth, we are grateful for that."

"Indeed? How come?"

"You save us from the trouble of doing it ourselves," Harry shrugged his small shoulders. "If Hellsing wouldn't be moving around as diligently as it is, we'd have deal with the rats ourselves…" he trailed away and frowned. "Well, not us. Them. I'm not quite one of them."

"Not one of them? Haven't the big boys let you into their club yet? You poor thing. And yet here you are," Alucard grinned. "How often do you go out rat catching yourself?"

"Sometimes," the boy's lips twitched as if trying to smile but thinking better of it. "When someone bothers what is mine. Usually it's not vampires, though. It's the humans. The kids of the streets are easy preys after all, and there are some monsters among men."

"Truer words were never spoken," the elder vampire hummed in agreement, leaning his elbows to his knees and looking at the boy thoughtfully. "Have you figured it out? Your little protection compulsion?"

Harry glanced at him and actually let out a small, humourless laugh, shaking his head. "No, haven't had the time," he answered. "The compulsion serves me well as it is, why fix it when it's not broken?"

"What a human attitude," Alucard answered, though he was a bit annoyed. He wished to know. Little worm was too young to be powerful, he couldn't have devoured enough people to gain that much strength - definitely not back when they had first met, he had been little more than a fledgling back then. And yet he had a telepathic or possibly empathic compulsion strong enough to affect Alucard… that sort of strength took decades to master. It _was_ curious.

But finding out it for himself was too much of a bother - besides, he didn't want to kill the boy just yet. Little worm was far too intriguing for that. Even if a bit slow. Actually, he was being painstakingly slow. And it was getting boring to watch. "You intend to drink all of her blood?" he asked thoughtfully.

"Every last drop."

The elder vampire snorted and reached out his hand. "Let me teach you a quicker way."

The younger one couldn't even open his mouth to speak before Alucard placed his hand over his head and sent a wave of age-old knowledge into the boy's mind. He had never actually done it for someone who didn't have his own blood running in their veins - why bother if there was no true connection - but little worm was special. And teaching a little vampiric trick to the boy could hardly be called anything but giving the child a nudge into the right direction.

As he pulled his hand - and his mind - away from the younger vampire, he sat back to curiously watch the expression on the boy's face. Wide eyed, paler than before, slightly quivery… why, it looked like the boy had never experienced true telepathy before. "Fascinating," Alucard rumbled with a grin. "It does really seem you aren't doing your compulsion knowingly." The boy would've known how to fight if he had. "And there are several tricks you haven't figured out yet about being a vampire…"

Harry closed his mouth with a click before squeezing his eyes shut. For a moment he looked like he was about to ask something - what had happened, why, how, and so on - but he seemed to opt against it. Instead he licked his mouth over his fanged teeth and surged forward, mouth wider open than before.

As the immobile vampire woman let out a weak scream, Alucard laughed. Fresh blood landed to the stained sheets as the younger vampire put his lesson in use, and devoured all the woman had to give, for the first time in his undead life moving pass the limitations of flesh. Stomach, in the end, was nothing but a bad habit for a vampire. And it seemed like little worm truly enjoyed that discovery.

"My, it looks like I taught you bad manners," the elder vampire mused as more blood spilled past the boy's hungry lips, and laughed again. It didn't take long before the little vampire had his fill and more, drinking until there was nothing more for the woman to give, until there was nothing but a withered husk remaining.

With a snarl the boy leaned back from the now very dead queen bee of filth. "Incredible," he murmured in haze, licking his lips and tracing his fingers over his blood stained throat. "I never imagined…"

"First time drinking someone to death?" Alucard asked with amusement.

"It's happened before, but not like this," Harry mumbled, closing his eyes in enjoyment. "I could do that again. I could definitely do that again…"

"Well, don't get too greedy with the nectar of life, my little poison butterfly," the elder vampire said while standing up. "You know what will happen if you make… too much noise about yourself."

The boy looked up to him, licking his teeth. "You're still going to kill me," he said with certainty.

"One day," Alucard agreed with a toothy grin. "When you're interesting enough." With that said, he headed out of the bloody bedroom. His mark had been killed and it was time to report to his Master. "We'll see again, poison butterfly. In a few years."

"I'll try not to bore you," the boy answered from behind him, and Alucard laughed again.

--

This is a bit of a gamble on my part as no one has seen this in it's fullest yet, and I have no idea if the ending is good or not. Generally I think the first chapter is better, but despite months of trying, I didn't manage to make this one better, so here it is, the very belated update to Vermin Control. And, if I manage to do as I plan to now, there will be approximately seven more to come. Also, for those interested in Harry; he has a seperate story now, Little Worm, which in sum of drabbles explains what happens to him between meetings that are shown in Vermin Control.

My apologies for possible grammar errors, if you pick any and they annoy you too much, please point them out to me so that I may correct them.


End file.
